
Address of the Brazilian Ambassador, Senhor Nabuco, at 
the Laying of the Corner-Stone of the New Building of 
the American Republics in Washington on May 11, 1908 



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Address 

of the 

Brazilian Ambassador 



You have spoken, Mr. President, of the other States 
of this Continent in a manner that shall cause intense 
satisfaction among them, and for which they certainly 
will feel greatly indebted to you. You can well see 
that, with their admiration for your mighty race and 
the pace of its progress never equalled before, they all 
bring into this Union their pride of their Latin inher- 
itance, of which there is no higher testimonial than the 
English language itself. Only when future comes to 
each of them and they will be able to develop, as this 
Nation has done with hers, the portion each received on 
her cradle, shall the world realize the greatness of the 
Columbus estate. May your happy auguries meet with 
your usual good fortune ! Together with those gener- 
ous greetings, your address breathes the soul of a peo- 
ple that never allows a difference in its treatment of 
powerful and of weak Nations. 

We were glad to acclaim the high praise you be- 
stowed on the present Secretary of State, while con- 
ferring to him the laurea insignis in this, the day of 
his triumph. His visit to South and Central America 
was one of those inspirations that characterise the 
statesman who will live in the hearts of many peoples. 
By the loftiness of his ideals, his fairness, his broad 



s^Tupathies, his ability to weigh the imponderables of 
international sensibility, he won the hearts of all our 
Nations, and could send you one of the most brilliant 
Veni, vidi, vici of Diplomacy. In their turn they cap- 
tur ed him and shall ever keep his image as a friendly 
hostage of peace and good will from this great Ee- 
public. 

You can well afford to be generous, Mr. President. 
No President of the United States will leave in the 
history of Pan- Americanism a deeper mark than the 
one you are cutting from ocean to ocean, to change 
the sea routes of the world so as to bring nearer to- 
gether the peoples and cities on the two fronts of our 
Continent. 

We give you our thanks, Mr. Carnegie, for your 
munificent donation. In selecting this City for the per- 
manent seat of our Union, the Latin Eepublics of 
America have shown in the most striking way their 
pride in the Nation that has been the leader of our 
Continent, and which made it one of the leaders of 
civilisation. You recollected that your Country, while 
onr associate, is also our host, and that never has 
a higher tribute than ours been paid to that American 
Democracy, which your book has so much endeared 
to our present generations. You must, also, have been 
moved by the thought, which caused already so many 
of your works : that of contributing throughout poster- 
ity to the cause of Peace. You rightly believe that 
Peace is Universal Charity. Ours, indeed, is a wholly 
peaceful alliance, and it shines outside the American 
orbit only to show that this Continent can already be 
called the Hemisphere of Peace. 

Gentlemen, there has never been a parallel for the 
sight which this ceremony presents: that of twenty- 



one Nations, of different languages, building together 
a house for their common deliberations. The more 
impressive is the scene as these Countries, with all pos- 
sible differences between them in size and population, 
have established their Union on the basis of the most 
absolute equality. Here the vote of the smallest bal- 
ances the vote of the greatest. So many sovereign 
States would not have been drawn so spontaneously 
and so strongly together, as if by an irresistible force, 
if there did not exist throughout them, at the bottom 
or at the top of each national conscience, the feeling 
of a destiny common to all America. It seems, indeed, 
that a decree of Providence made the Western shore 
of the Atlantic appear late in History as the chosen 
land for a great renewal of mankind. From the early 
days of its colonisation the sentiment sprung in the 
hearts of all its children that this is really a new World. 
That is the sentiment which unites us together in this 
auspicious day. We feel we are all sons of Columbus. 
And if we meet here, it is because we feel also that we 
all are sons of Washington. Rising on the plain of the 
Potomac, in the sight of the Capitol, the new House of 
the American Republics shall be another monument to 
the founder of modern Liberty. That one is his na- 
tional, this his continental, Memorial. 

Gentlemen, hearing still the voice of Ms Eminence 
Cardinal Gibbons invoking upon this Union the bless- 
ings of Heaven, our one prayer is that our mutual 
pledges may grow ever and ever stronger, so that we 
all come to feel the full inspiration of the undissolv- 
able partnership of the two Americas. 



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